Success in Eliminating
Cluster Bombs Heightens Urgency to Stop New Attacks by
Holdout States

The Monitor

(Geneva, 30 August
2018) - Ten years after its adoption by the international
community, the treaty banning cluster munitions has an
extremely impressive record of compliance due to the
steadfast commitment by States Parties to the agreement's
binding provisions, according to an annual monitoring report
released today by the Cluster Munition Coalition at the
United Nations (UN) in Geneva.

"Through this global
agreement countries are ridding the world of the cluster
munition scourge," said Hector Guerra, director of the
Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC). "Our global research
demonstrates how the Convention on Cluster Munitions is the
only truly effective measure against these indiscriminate
weapons."

Cluster Munition Monitor 2018 finds that States
Parties to the convention have already destroyed 99% of
their stockpiled cluster munitions, eliminating a collective
total of more than 1.4 million cluster munitions and 177
million submunitions. Since the last edition of Cluster
Munition Monitor was published in August 2017, Croatia,
Cuba, Slovenia, and Spain completed destruction of their
stockpiled cluster munitions. In 2017 alone, seven States
Parties destroyed a total of 33,551 cluster munitions and
more than 1.7 million submunitions.

Sri Lanka is the
newest member of the Convention on Cluster Munitions, having
acceded on 1 March 2018. This brings the total number of
States Parties to 103. Another 17 states have signed but not
yet ratified the convention. Last December, 142 states,
including 32 non-signatories to the convention, adopted a
key UN General Assembly resolution supporting the Convention
on Cluster Munitions. Russia and Zimbabwe were the only
countries to vote against.

"Many countries that have not
joined the Convention on Cluster Munitions nonetheless
express firm support for its goals and condemn new use of
these weapons, which shows the stigma against cluster
munitions is growing stronger" said Mary Wareham of Human
Rights Watch, ban policy editor of Cluster Munition Monitor
2018. "Full compliance demonstrates to those considering
signing how the convention's provisions are not overly
burdensome or impossible to implement. Non-signatories
should take note and renounce cluster munitions by joining
the convention without delay."

Cluster Munition Monitor
2018 identified at least 289 new cluster munition casualties
globally in 2017. This global number is certainly less than
the actual total as many cluster munition attacks likely
went unrecorded.

Of the total number of casualties
worldwide in 2017, 187 were recorded in Syria, less than a
quarter of the 860 recorded in 2016 in that country. Syrian
government forces have continued to use cluster munitions in
the past year, with the support of Russia. Over the past
five-year period, 77% of recorded cluster munition
casualties worldwide occurred in Syria.

A Saudi Arabia-led
coalition of states has also continued to use cluster
munitions in Yemen, but there has been a significant decline
in the number of recorded attacks with these stigmatized
weapons following widespread international condemnation.
None of the countries using cluster munitions in Syria and
Yemen have signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

In
total, cluster munition casualties were recorded in eight
countries and two other areas in 2017, with 32 casualties
registered in Lao PDR due to cluster munition remnants from
United States (US) bombing in the 1960s and 1970s. Globally,
99% of recorded casualties in 2017 were civilians, where
such status was available.

"Cluster munitions pose
extreme danger to civilians at the time of use, as the
conflicts in Syria and Yemen illustrate, but cluster
munition remnants also pose significant danger to civilians
long after conflict has ended, as evidence from Lao PDR and
other countries show," said Jeff Abramson, coordinator of
the Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor." The need is
acute in Syria and other countries where cluster munitions
are used to quickly identify and clear contaminated area
that will otherwise threaten vulnerable civilians,
especially children, for years and even decades to come," he
added.

In 2017, clearance operators surveyed and cleared
at least 93 km2 of contaminated land worldwide resulting in
the destruction of at least 153,000 submunitions, both
increases compared to the previous year. In all, 10
countries, eight of which are States Parties to the
Convention on Cluster Munitions, have completed clearance of
cluster munition-contaminated land. At least 26 states
remain contaminated by these weapons, including 12 States
Parties to the convention. No state completed cluster
munition clearance in the past year.

Cluster munitions are
fired by artillery and rockets or dropped by aircraft, and
open in the air to release multiple smaller bomblets or
submunitions over an area the size of a football field.
Submunitions often fail to explode on initial impact,
leaving dangerous remnants that pose the same danger as
landmines until cleared and destroyed. The Convention on
Cluster Munitions was adopted and opened for signature in
2008, and entered into force on 1 August 2010. It
comprehensively prohibits cluster munitions, requires
destruction of stockpiles within eight years, clearance of
areas contaminated by cluster munition remnants within 10
years, and the provision of assistance for victims of the
weapon.

States Parties with cluster munition victims have
obligations to increase assistance, which has improved the
situation for victims since the convention was adopted. In
the last year, rehabilitation services improved in a number
of countries, unlike income- and job-support programs that
remain much in need. Due to diminishing resources, national
survivors' organizations struggle to contact cluster
munition victims in remote areas.

About the
Monitor:

This ninth annual Cluster Munition
Monitor report has been prepared by the Cluster Munition
Coalition (CMC) for dissemination at the Eighth Meeting of
States Parties to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, at
the UN in Geneva, on 3-5 September 2018. It is the sister
publication to the Landmine Monitor report, issued annually
since 1999 by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines
(ICBL), the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. Landmine and
Cluster Munition Monitor is coordinated by a committee of
ICBL-CMC staff and representatives from ICBL-CMC member
organizations, Danish Demining Group, Human Rights Watch,
Humanity & Inclusion, and Mines Action Canada.

Using the
2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions as its principal frame
of reference, the report focuses on activities in calendar
year 2017 with information included into August 2018 where
possible. It covers global trends in ban policy and
practice, survey and clearance of cluster munition remnants,
cluster munition casualties, and efforts to guarantee the
rights and meet the needs of cluster munition victims. These
findings are drawn from updated country profiles published
online.

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